Freedom, the truth for which almost the whole world gives its life. If you just look inside the human consciousness the very flow of human consciousness is towards freedom. If you see the history of all civilizations, all the expression is always towards freedom. Whatever they thought as freedom, they were always putting their energy in that direction.
Even money – Why do you think so much of desire for wealth in the world? Because with money you have more choices. You experience a glimpse of freedom with money. Without money you have only one suffering. With money you have many suffering between which you can choose.
Whether it is our running behind money, or political freedom or social freedom whatever you may call it with different names. But finally human consciousness constantly expands towards freedom. If you think political freedom is the ultimate, you start moving towards political freedom. If a society thinks social freedom is the ultimate, they start move towards social freedom. If you think economical freedom is the ultimate, you start working for economic freedom. Whatever you consider as a freedom, you start working towards it. You start traveling towards it.
Let us look deeply inside the very basis of freedom. How human beings decide whether political freedom is important or religious freedom is important or spiritual freedom is important or economical freedom is important.
Very beautifully Upanishad says, ‘Ekoham bahushyaam’. ‘The one which is me let it, let me become many.’ One more beautiful Upanishadic statement, ‘The one became many just to enjoy itself.’ The basic idea with which the one became many is to enjoy itself. That is why I say the basic thread of this whole creation is compassion. When the one became many the only commandment it created for itself is ‘let us all co exist blissfully’.
That is why I say compassion is the only commandment from God, the cosmic law. Everything else is a man made law. But compassion is the cosmic law. When the ‘one’ became ‘many’ with this cosmic thought, ‘Let us all co-exist’, the compassion became a base material.
AHIMSA
We can see in our civilization, even for political freedom we trusted a saint- ‘Mahatma’ – Gandhi – a person who is established in non-violence, ahimsa. I tell you, in any crisis ahimsa, compassion, non-violence, is the best strategy. I am telling from my experience. There is no crisis which cannot be handled by compassion, by ahimsa.
Understand, freedom has more to do with the inner space in which you are established, from where you are making decisions. The point where you receive information from the outer world and process, make decisions. Freedom is more dependent on that space than the place where you live. I tell you from my experience, freedom has nothing to do with the place you live in. It is the space you are established. If you are established in a zone where the information is received and processed, and decisions are made with deep friendliness, with deep joy, with deep compassion I tell you are established in the real freedom. The ultimate freedom which can’t be taken away by anybody.
“FREEDOM FROM ”
Freedom from something is negative part of freedom. Freedom for something is positive part of freedom. Freedom from and for is the ultimate freedom. Freedom from something means freedom from some bondage – freedom from prison, freedom from some conditions etc. The negative part of freedom will never give you the fulfillment unless you have the positive part of freedom. Freedom for what? Unless you understand the ‘freedom for’, the ‘freedom from’ will not give you fulfillment. You will take it for granted. The ‘freedom from’ will be forgotten in few days. None of you are celebrating that you have been free. ‘Freedom from’ is always forgotten taken for granted when you don’t know the ‘freedom for’.
Please understand, ‘freedom from’ means bondages. When you are free from that you are free from fears. ‘Freedom for’ means greeds, goals. When you are free from that, you are free from greed. When you are free from the hatred or vengeance, suddenly you experience a different dimension of freedom, the ultimate freedom.
How much ever you grab things or people, places or objects you will not be living with it. Nothing can be added to you. This is an important truth, please understand when you are established in Ahimsa, even if your body is taken away from you, even if you are killed, what all you think as joy which you want to experience through the body , you will be able to experience even without that body.
But if you are established in vengeance, even if you have the body you will not be able to experience what you want. Even if you are eating you will be thinking something else, you will not be enjoying. Even if you are listening you will be thinking something else, you will not be enjoying. I have seen people going to the vacation places, going to the hill resorts, such a beautiful scene, they will not be enjoying the scene. They will be planning how to own a cottage here, how to own a house here, how to own a farmhouse here. They cannot enjoy anything unless it belongs to them legally. By the time it belongs to them legally, they are running behind the carpenter, plumber and electrician to take care of that house.
A person who is established in vengeance, will never be enjoying anything, something else will be going on. A person who is established in compassion, ahimsa, even if the body is taken away from him, he will be enjoying whatever he wants.
LIFE AS IT IS
Please understand, the greatest foolishness that a human being can commit is strategy planning to come out of a crisis. Any strategy planning you make when you are in a crisis, you will be putting more and more crisis, because when the crisis happens, an ordinary mind gets caught in fear and greed, and it’s almost like negotiating with life. You can negotiate with each other, giving something and taking something. You cannot negotiate with life, you cannot bargain with life. With life there is no negotiation, only pure surrender. When the life happens in your life larger than your life size, if you are shaken, it is a crisis. If you are relaxed it is a teaching. See, when life interferes in your life larger than life-size means you are not able to measure it. In college I have seen the senior used to rag juniors. ‘What department you are in?’ The junior says, ‘I am in civil engineering.’ ‘Do you know how to do survey?’ ‘Yes I learnt.’ These guys will give a matchstick and tell them survey this whole room.
Same way, when life happens in front of you, if you start asking questions ‘why this to me? What? Why? When? Why?’, it’s almost like trying to measure life, like measuring the whole hall with a matchstick. You cannot measure life with your matchstick. ‘Why, when, what.’ Your length, breadth, depth is too small to measure life. When you try to solve life with the matchstick, you will be creating more and more chaos. When you are established in deep compassion, deep sympathy, you will just see life is appreciated as it is. Life is experienced as it is
FREEDOM FROM VENGEANCE – *THE PROCESS
I will give you a simple process to experience this truth. Sit with yourself in a relaxed way. Inside your mind call the people whom you feel are accused in your life, with whom you cherish hatred and anger. Call them one by one. Logically reason – even if I take revenge on him or her is my life going to be fulfilled? NO.
Please understand, you always think that whenever you are in crisis, when you take revenge on the person who created problem for you, you achieved something. NO, that is not your success, even if you take revenge on him finally suddenly you feel you are feeling empty, you are not feeling fulfilled. Taking revenge on somebody is not going to be fulfilling you, it’s just going to be the diversion of your life energy, wasting of your life energy. Any emotion can be nullified when you reason with it 7 times continuously. I am giving you an important clue. Any emotion, whether it is anger or
lust or hatred or vengeance – bring it to your consciousness, inner space and reason with it logically 7 times continuously. By the time you finish the seventh time, that emotion will lose its power over you.
Blood cannot wash blood. Violence cannot nullify violence, if we go on doing eye for an eye, the whole world will become blind. A judge who has the power to judge and judges will only be a judge. Maybe international court judge. But a judge who has the power to judge and does not judge anybody is GOD. So call every accused you have in your heart, in your inner space. Conduct the court session and acquit them with honor. When you acquit everybody and everything without judging suddenly you will see you are the cosmic judge, you are God.*
This tremendous experience of no need for the body and freedom from hatred is the ultimate freedom.
Taken from Nithyananda’s ‘Freedom Discourse’ on 10th July, 2010, Bidadi Ashram
*The reader can also practice the poornatva kriya or the completion process for freedom from vengeance, as given by Paramahamsa Nithyananda in his recent talks.